No. 1 Ladies Opera House

Well, it seems like we cannot have been here for more than two months without making some reference to the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency! The books are in all the bookshops, including the latest one - The Miracle at Speedy Motors - just out in paperback. (Kuno has also found the latest in his favorite series by Alexander McCall Smith - Akimbo and the Baboons.) We were delighted to see, soon after we arrived, a sign for the No. 1 Ladies Opera House, a cafe and restaurant out by Kgale Siding. We were anxious to go there and enjoy a steaming mug of redbush (rooibos) tea, only to learn that it has recently closed! Not enough business, I was told by Rapelang at the nearby Botswana Society office. It is in an out of the way spot; I am sure if it were on the Main Mall or one of the other malls, it would have been a different story.

We have many connections to the books to report. For example, when she was assessed at Thornhill, Mave was reminded that Mma Ramotswe's foster daughter, Motholeli, 'goes' to Thornhill and indeed when they were making the TV series (or is it movie?) they did some filming at Thornhill! We have heard that an HBO series begins on March 29th (though, unfortunately, not here). Tlokweng Road is just around the corner from us; we cross it every time we go to Riverwalk. Mave is keen to drive down it and look for Speedy Motors. In fact, we have driven down Tlokweng Road to get to our security company offices and I think if we drove just a little bit farther we would find it! (I would have thought that Speedy Motors would be on Kubu Road in the Broadhurst Industrial Area, but I guess not.) The museum that we visited in Mochudi once housed a school, the one that Mma Ramotswe 'attended;' it is certainly true that the view from the nearby rocks overlooking the village is a peaceful one. I have been for tea at the President's Hotel in town; as refreshing as Precious describes it - and a great vantage point from which to observe all kinds of activity on the Main Mall below. We too admire the view of Kgale Hill on an almost daily basis and we have savored the ubiquitous pumpkin and butternut squash. We have located Zebra Drive near the Gaborone Sun and drive past it often. We would have no trouble agreeing with Mma Ramotswe that Botswana is certainly among the best countries in Africa in which to live! We see her and Mma Makutsi (and especially her shoes) many times over every time we venture out our door. (That said, we also see many much more 'hip' Batswana, who occupy themselves with somewhat weightier issues than those of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.) Still, the books are lots and lots of fun, even more so now that we are here and have experienced Botswana for some time!

Postscript: we have now watched 'the movie' which was shown on BBC about a year ago and which we believe to be the first installment in the series currently being shown in the US. While it is lots of fun to watch - and we have watched it a few times - we hope that no one thinks that this is life in Gaborone! There is a shopping center at Kgale Hill and much of the film seems to take place in 'Kgale' which is much more like a village outside of Gaborone, even those just a mile or so from our place. One friend Tshepo - who is an extra in the funeral scene - expressed disappointment that so few Batswana actors were used, instead South Africans and Nigerians etc; indeed she said even the food on the set was provided by South African companies. In her view, and we would concur, the characters also do not come across as Batswana that we know. Never mind that there are no rhinos in Mochudi and that the road from Mochudi to Gaborone has long been paved!!!!! But it is still fun for us to be reminded of Botswana. (We have none of the problems that others seem to have had - that the series does not portray all the problems of darkest Africa. That is what many people don't understand. That life goes on here as everywhere else. And that many places in Africa do not conform to all of those stereotypes.)